For many children, their first experience with money often involves coins. They typically start by learning the value of different coins, and then progress to making relatively small purchases with coins. Parents have traditionally encouraged their children to save coins at a young age, as saving provides a way to instill a sense of responsibility in children, and lets them experience the satisfaction of setting and achieving goals.
There are a number of ways that children and other people can exchange their saved coins for cash. For example, they can take their coins to a local bank, but some banks require that the coins be rolled and counted before they can be deposited or exchanged for cash. Consumers can also exchange their coins for cash vouchers, e-certificates, or other products at a consumer-operated coin counting kiosk. Outerwall Inc., for example, operates a network of consumer-operated coin counting kiosks located in retail stores, banks and other publicly accessible areas. The kiosks count loose coins and dispense vouchers that can be redeemed for cash or merchandise. Many of the kiosks also offer other products and services, such as e-certificates, gift cards, account transfers, etc.
Although teaching children to save their money at an early age has many benefits, it can often be difficult to motivate children to save because they may not appreciate the connection between disciplined saving and the ability to purchase things that they desire. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide parents with access to tools and resources that could help them encourage their children to set saving goals and engage in saving programs to achieve those goals.